7mm Blackbridge Town Riverside

I have created this thread to separate the thread on Blackbridge Townfrom the Blackbridge Town Riverside layout as development will be proceeding at a separate pace.

Here is the layout:

The layout is 3000mm long by 400mm wide and consists of four baseboards, two each 1200mm long and two each 300mm long, all by 400mm wide. The two central baseboards are hinged and fold together in the middle with the join hidden by a removable road overbridge (concept borrowed from C J Freezers 'Minories' layout design). The two outer baseboards can either be connected or not as the layout has been planned to be errected with just the two central baseboards for basic homebased operating sessions.

The thinking behind the layout design is that it can erected or taken down, once stock is removed, in 10 minutes maximum.

The layout is set somewhere in the BR Western Region South Wales area and the period setting is late 1950s.

Train lengths are going to be very restricted (but have been tested) and passenger services will consist of a ex-GW Diesel Railcar, Autocoach and 14XX 0-4-2T or 64XX/74XX 0-6-0PT with goods services consisting of two wagons and a brake van hauled by a 13XX 0-6-0ST, 0-6-0 Diesel Shunter or Peckett Class E 0-4-0ST.

As I mentioned in the introduction in the main Blackbridge Town thread I am very much an 'operator' therefore scenery is very much at a minimum level throughout mostly consisting of retaining walls.

I spent some time thinking through how the layout would be operated and the movements that could be made. I used paper templates on a 1/4 size paper plan to work out what movements I could have to ensure that I would be satisfied during a one or two hour operating session. Movements needed to be as prototypical as possible, all couplings being automatic.

I decided, as I mentioned before, because I am a Railway Signal Engineer by profession, that I needed some element of signalling, so I have incorporated a small Ground Frame into the layout to control a couple of the sets of the points, but not all, and a couple of signals. My excuse for this is that the line from the main Blackbridge Town station is on a steep falling gradient towards the riverside and therefore a set of trap points is needed to arrest any potential runaway. You can see these just to the right of the overbridge. As there is going to be a passenger service, albeit minimal, some signalling is required.

Forgot to mention, that like the Blackbridge Town layout, its set in the BR-WR late 1950s era.

Well folks its been sometime since my last post. Things have been really busy over the past months and personal modelling time has been at a premium. Anyway, things have moved on and the layout is now commencing physical construction.

To help me understand the feasibility of this (things are going to be very tight and thus dimensions need to be as accurate as possible) I have built a 1/4 scale model in card:

There are now 4 baseboards that can be connected in one of four configurations:
Option A = Baseboards 2 and 3
Option B = Baseboards 2, 3 and 4
Option C = Baseboards 1,2 and 3
Option D = Baseboards 1,2,3 and 4

This gives lots of flexibility on where the layout can be erected at home or (if) it was invited to an exhibition or club day. Option A is the one if I want to have a quick running session and it has been designed to be put up and taken down in 10 minutes maximum each. To help this these two baseboards are hinged together in the middle and fold up over each other 'top to top' after the overbridge has been removed.

The previous proposal to utilise Grainge and Hodder baseboards has been abandoned and these are now being built for me by a friend using 6mm double-skinned plywood.

The scenery behind and above the retaining wall (orange line on the plan) lifts off to give access to the hidden sidings and sector plate. However, there are also cutouts in the rear verticals to give access with the scenery in place. Operation will be from the front at home and from the rear at exhibitions etc.

It was decided that the baseboards sizes were set in stone and therefore construction of them could start.

So, here is one of the two 1200mm baseboards shown still under-construction

The fascia boards have not yet been fitted as these are still in production, and are a bit complicated as they are profiled to suit the terrain (see the 1/4 size model in post #3 above). Also missing is the cross-bracing which will be fitted once the point motor positions have been confirmed. The two 300mm baseboards are similar in construction.

Now then, TEMPLOT. Where to start. Well its a very good track design programme. However, it takes a lot of practice to get even the most basic of track layouts designed in it. One good thing is that you can import a draft layout design into it and then overlay the TEMPLOT track templates over it. The layout design shown in post #1 above was constructed in ANYRAIL which is a very good programme if you are going to utilise standard points such as PECO, which I am. The most complicated thing to design in TEMPLOT is probably a double slip, and unfortunately I have one on the layout.

After about a week of playing around with TEMPLOT I finally finished my layout design in it, cut out the prints and assembled them for each of the two larger baseboards.

So everything just about fits. The only thing I am now considering is to replace the Right-hand point on the right-hand baseboard (the lower photograph) by a Y point, just to give that little bit more length on the siding next to the sector plate.

I should have mentioned that since the original concept I have been looking in a bit more detail at the exit to the sector plate and kick-back fiddle yard sidings. I have decided that, rather than the planned tunnel exit, that I would have another overbridge to hide the exit. As I didn't want this to be too big it will be a footbridge. Also note that the station building has reverted to its original position and that the signalbox has moved from the right hand to the left-hand baseboard.

Here is the revised plan (with the layout shown in its reduced 'Home' configuration of two baseboards only):

If you just copy and paste from the Guild forum then yes it will copy just the photo links rather than the photos themselves. I am trying to sort out the image copying so that they will embed fully but it's an outstanding query with the hosting company we use.

Now then, TEMPLOT. Where to start. Well its a very good track design programme. However, it takes a lot of practice to get even the most basic of track layouts designed in it. One good thing is that you can import a draft layout design into it and then overlay the TEMPLOT track templates over it. The layout design shown in post #1 above was constructed in ANYRAIL which is a very good programme if you are going to utilise standard points such as PECO, which I am.

Click to expand...

You have lost me there.

If you will be using Peco pointwork, why are you trying to design your layout in Templot? AnyRail is far better for that purpose, or one of the many other similar programs.

Templot is intended specifically and only for modellers who will be building their own track. It simply doesn't work with ready-made track, so it's not surprising that you found it difficult to use. See:

If you will be using Peco pointwork, why are you trying to design your layout in Templot? AnyRail is far better for that purpose, or one of the many other similar programs.

Templot is intended specifically and only for modellers who will be building their own track. It simply doesn't work with ready-made track, so it's not surprising that you found it difficult to use. See:

I was not sure that the PECO points would fit so I produced the layout in ANYRAIL and overlaid TEMPLOT on it to see if I would need to hand build any points instead. However, the two almost exactly matched so eventually no need to use TEMPLOT except that as you can't print out ANYRAIL to scale and I wanted to make sure everything would fit, I utilised the TEMPLOT printout to do so.

In the end the learning curve with TEMPLOT was worthwhile as I have since designed a modelling friends layout solely within it.

I have updated the 1/4 scale cardboard model so that I can visualize what the layout will look like with a proscenium arch (Obvious things like the baseboard and back-scene joints will be hidden in the actual model):